<<<< It showed a beekeeper
handling a colony of very aggressive bees using a breathing tube which
caused the CO2 emitted by his breath to be discharged behind them. The bees
were fairly quiet.
 
He then removed the tube and breathed normally and considerable aggression
was the result.
 
Before I rush out and buy such a device I was wondering if anybody has any
comment to make on the idea.>>>>>>>
I can make no comment on the behaviour of AHBs but in regard to Apis
mellifera I have breathed on bees to open up buncbes on the combs thousands
of times in a lifetime of beekeeping and do it as a matter of course.  
Never once have I detected any aggressive response.  It may well be a
question of the individual's breath.  We can detect a beer  or cigarette
laden breath easily.  What else can the bee detect?   I hold meetings in my
apiary every summer and it is noticeable that the odd bee or bees, well
away from the bives, start buzzing one particular individual, male or
female, around the head, from which most scent would emanate. All the other
people are ignored and usually highly amused.   Now why just two, three or
four bees only?  In an apiary of twenty hives there will be some quarter of
a miilion bees on the wing.  Why do not a thousand bees pitch in to that
individual?  Who decides that two or three are enough to discourage him?
 I often get the same treatment when I wander round the apiary just looking
and not bothering to dress up.  Tens of thousands of bees coming and going,
many landing on me,  and just one or two, never more than three, telling me
that I am not wanted.  
 Several years ago I lost a button on my apiary jacket and replaced it from
a household collection of odd buttons.  Every time I opened a hive a few
bees, never more than six, would fly to that button and try to sting it.  
The button was very old and made of some form of early plastic and
obviously had an objectionable odour I could not detect.  Now why just half
a dozen bees and not the whole hive?  I had to remove the button and out of
curiosity I hung it on a thread and dangled it near an entrance.  Every
time just a few bees would emerge and attack it.
 We still have a lot to learn about bee behaviour.              Sid P.